Yomiuri
Giants owner Tsuneo Watanabe, who is apparently not tired of the taste of
his own foot, accused Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki as well as
Ichiro's former team, the Orix Blue Wave, of "selling out [Japan]." Watanabe
has in the past expressed an outward distaste for the posting system as well
as players who choose to try their luck in MLB and this is his most bizarre
comment on it yet.

One of the problems that has led to the current state of affairs in Japanese
baseball, what with declining attendance and players choosing to go to the
majors, is petty dictators such as Watanabe. The former international
correspondent for Japan's most popular daily, the Yomiuri Shimbun, is now
looking at his star centerfielder, Hideki "Godzilla" Matsui, possibly going
to MLB via free agency next season and this has fueled the 75 year old Watanabe's
increasing resentment toward the big leagues. Yesterday, Watanabe even infered
that MLB is invading Japan much like the arrival of Commodore Perry's black
ships in the 1850's.
The Giants
are so worried about Matsui getting away that they've asked his family to
stop speculating in the press about it. A Sankei Sports poll out the last
couple of days show Japanese fans generally supportive of Matsui heading
to the bigs. The 28 year old lefthanded hitter has recently said that he
has an eye on another Giants club, the one by the SF Bay.

So far, there has been no reaction from either Orix or Ichiro to Watanabe's
statement, perhaps choosing to allow the clownish nature of the remark speak
for itself.

Japanese
Banks Want Daiei Hawks Put Up for Sale

Four of Japan's largest banks, holding
between them more than 2.3 trillion yen (roughly $18.1 billion) in outstanding
loan notes from the Daiei supermarket chain, are demanding that Daiei sell
its pro baseball team, the Daiei Hawks, as well as Fukuoka Dome and the Seahawk
Hotel and Resort in order to raise money to pay off at least some of the
debt. Daiei has been hammered by the ongoing Japanese recession and recently
dealt a subsidiary to the Caryle Group to raise cash.
For its part,
Daiei officials are saying that they have no intention of unloading the powerful
Hawks nine, although it had been rumored last season that it may be sold
to a Taiwanese company. Yomiuri Giants owner Tsuneo Watanabe has pledged
to do everything he can to help Daiei keep the team. The Hawks drew a Pacific
League record 3,087,000 people last season and are profitable.

Japan's
Lou Brock, Yutaka Fukumoto, and Seven Others Named to Japanese Baseball Hall
of Fame

Japan's all time stolen base king,
Yutaka Fukumoto, who swiped 1065 bags over the course of a 20 year career
with the Hankyu Braves (now the Orix Blue Wave), was named to the Japanese
Baseball Hall of Fame earlier today. Also being immortalized on a plaque
were southpaw Keishi Suzuki, who won 317 games in 20 campaigns with the Kintetsu
Buffaloes, former Mainichi Orions (now the Chiba Lotte Marines) outfielder
and Chunichi Dragons manager Kazuhiro Yamauchi, ex-Osaka Tigers outfielder
and Toei Flyers (now Nippon Ham) field boss Kenjiro Tamiya, the late Pacific
Leaguechairman Fujio Nakazawa,
Akihiro "Ike" Ikuhara, who worked to bring the Japanese and major league
baseball worlds together, especially as a special assistant to Dodgers chairman
Walter O' Malley, poet Shiki Masaoka, who is credited with helping to spread
word about the game in Japan in the late 19th century, and former two time
National League batting champ and San Francisco Seals
managerFrank "Lefty" O'Doul,
who was likewise recognized for his aiding in the interaction between Japanese
and U.S. baseball.

Fukumoto, who won 13 consecutive Pacific League stolen base crowns between
1970-1982 to go along with 13 Gold Gloves, batted .291 lifetime, rapping
out 2543 hits (fifth all time), 208 of them homers, drove in 884 runs while
also ripping all time Japanese highs of 449 doubles and 115 triples. He struck
out 1054 times in 8745 official at bats (12%) and walked on 1234 (sixth all
time) occasions. His career OBP was .379. He was selected as the PL MVP in
1972 after hitting .301 with 14 homers and 40 RBIs while thieving 106 bases,
still the Japanese record. In fact, Fukumoto hold the top three steals marks
in Japanese baseball history, taking 95 in 1973 and 94 in 1974. His lifetime
steal success rate was 78%. Ironically, before Fukumoto, the one season high
had been 85, by Akiteru Kono in 1956, also a member of Hankyu. The most that
have been stolen since Fukumoto set the record was
TadashiMatsumoto's Central
League record 76 for the 1983 Yomiuri Giants. Of course, after racking up
all the steals, it's little surprise that Fukumoto is second all time in
runs scored with 1656. And, as a curious footnote, at one point, the Braves
even had Fukumoto's legs insured.

Fukumoto was so dominant a base stealer that the second place career leader,
Nankai Hawks centerfielder Yoshinori Hirose, lightfingered just over half
of Fukumoto's total at 596 over 22 years, with a single season high of 72
in 1964, the same year he won his first and only batting championship.
Altogether, Hirose won five stolen base titles, all in the early 1960's.

Suzuki broke in with Kintetsu in 1966 and after going 10-12 as a rookie,
came back the next season and went 21-13 with a 2.77 ERA, beginning a run
of what became five consecutive 20 victory campaigns. His best year was in
1978, when he triumphed 25 times and was beaten in ten others while posting
a 2.02 ERA. In all, he came out on top 317 times against 238 losses with
a 3.11 ERA in 4600.1 innings. His average walks were 2.2/9 while inducing
exactly six whiffs per nine. He
also twirled two no hitters
during his career, one in 1968 against Toei and another in 1971 against the
Nishitetsu (now Seibu) Lions. He still holds the Pacific League record for
most strikeout titles with eight.

One remarkable thing about Suzuki is that he was a natural righthander, but
his father forced him to learn to pitch lefthanded, even going so far as
to tie his son's right arm behind him while he practiced.

Yamauchi, a native of Aichi Prefecture, joined the Orions out of high school
in 1952, where he was a spot player for a couple of seasons until making
it into the starting lineup in 1954, batting .308 with 28 homers and 97 RBIs
and took home the PL crown in the latter category. He slugged 20 homers or
more in 12 of his 19 seasons as an active player, winning one batting
championship in 1957 and earning an MVP trophy in 1960 when he hit .313 with
32 homers and 103 RBIs, the homer and RBI figures leading the league.

For his career, Yamauchi collected
2271 hits as he batted .295, went deep 396 times, drove in 1286 runs and
struckout a mere 820 times in 7702 official at bats. In 1964, he was traded
from the now Tokyo Orions to the Hanshin Tigers for pitching great Masaki
Koyama, a deal that worked bigtime for Tokyo since Koyama spun his way to
a 30 victory season. Koyama ultimately finished his career with 320 wins.
Yamauchi didn't disappoint fans in his new surroundings, sending 31 balls
sailing over the fence at Koshien Stadium and other Central League facilities
and bringing home 94. Hanshin then went on to lose in the Japan Series four
games to three to the Nankai Hawks.

That was the last really great season for Yamauchi, though his subsequent
campaigns were at least decent, hitting around 20 homers and batting in the
.260 range for the most part, the .313-21-69 1968 season , when he moved
on to Hiroshima, notwithstanding.

Kenjiro Tamiya was a 5'9" 172 pound centerfielder out of Shimodate, Ibarakai
Prefecture, who played mostly for the Osaka (now Hanshin) Tigers. He originally
came to the club in 1949 at the age of 21 as a pitcher, coming within one
out of tossing a perfect game in 1950. However, in 1952, he experienced shoulder
problems and was converted to an
outfielder. As a position player,
he finally got a chance at being a regular in 1954 and took advantage, hitting
.300 with seven homers, 60 RBIs and 30 steals. For the next nine seasons,
he was consistently between .280 and .300, and except for the final three
years w as usually good for 20-30 stolen bases.
Hewon his only batting title
in 1958, hitting .320 and whacking 11 dingers on the way to plating 62 runners.

In 1959, he went to the Daimai Orions
and did well there, helping the Orions to a PL pennant before retiring after
the conclusion of the 1963 schedule. In 1969 he was named batting instructor
of the Chunichi Dragons and then in 1971 took the helm of the Toei squad
for two and a half years, recording a 155-200-21 mark before being replaced
by Masayuki Dobashi in July of 1973In 1995 and 1996, he managed a pro team in Taiwan. There is a junior
high baseball tournament named after him that started in 1981.

A
Little Bit of Versatility in Taguchi

New St. Louis Cardinals addition So Taguchi, besides
being a fine outfielder, can also chip in at second base if needed, since
he did some work at that position while with his old club in Japan, Orix.
Taguchi, who finished second to Brent Abernethy in total hits in the 2000
Sydney Olympics, remarked to the press that he thought that "the Cardinals
have the coolest uniform in all of baseball." The Taguchi signing is being
greeted very positively by the St. Louis faithful, arguably the greatest
fans around.

Taguchi, who has a clause in his contract that says if the Cardinals demote
him to the minors he can go back to the Japanese league, will be wearing
number 99 and hopes that "I do so good they will retire it."

For those of you Cardinals fans who will be at a fan appreciation event on
the 19th, Taguchi revealed that he intends to show up at it. If you want
to offer Mr. Taguchi some encouragement, you can use the Japanese phrase
"gambatte kudasai," which means, "do your best."

Hasegawa
Heads to Seattle

The always upbeat and humorous Shigetoshi Hasegawa is a Mariner,
according to Sports Nippon. Hasegawa, who while perhaps not having the raw
stuff of the now departed Jose Paniagua, can throw strikes all day long.
Paniagua was having a lot of trouble in that department, especially the last
two months of the season. Another great aquisition by Mr. Gillick.

Hasegawa had done some tv and radio work in Japan during the 2000 World Series
and it will be interesting to see what they do with him from a public relations
standpoint. To be sure, Anaheim could dearly pay for allowing the ex-Blue
Wave to get away, since their middle relief has some big question marks right
now.

Meanwhile,
Over in Korea

Congratulations are in order to Samsung
Lions slugger Seung-yeop Lee, who will be working out with the Chicago Cubs
this coming February and early March. After wrapping up yet another homer
title and Gold Glove, though his team lost the Korea Series, Lee is tying
the knot this month.